If left unchecked, the rise of sea levels could have a dramatic effect on some of the world's most populous cities.

In 2015, Climate Central, an independent climate science organization, worked with artist Nickolay Lamm to show the effect on coastal cities.

Lamm's images show two different scenarios.

One is an image of the cities "based on 2°C (3.6°F) of warming from carbon pollution," which is "the target limit widely discussed today as the threshold to avoid catastrophic climate change," according to Climate Central.

The other shows how cities would look "following 4°C (7.2°F) of warming from carbon pollution in the coming decades."